I Give Civil Rights Four Stars

Three recent Hollywood films, The Help (2011), Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013) and Selma (2014), drew attention for depicting the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. While Hollywood has been scrutinized for its role in racial discourse, less attention has been paid to how film critics discuss race in their reviews. This paper examines the critical response to these films, with an emphasis on the reviewers’ reliance on memory and history in forming their opinions. A textual analysis found that critics were reverential toward the movement and the black experience but still distrustful of the Hollywood system doing a credible job in explaining or understanding the events. The reviewers shaped and shared a memory of nightmarish race relations and prescribed corrections for both Hollywood and America. These reviews illustrate that film critics see themselves as arbiters not only of taste but also of history.